


Chocolate Cereal

by okemmelie



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Gen, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23392468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: Paul and Emma are great parents. They're not smart parents who figure out why their chocolate cereal always runs out faster than they expect, but they're great parents.
Relationships: Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Comments: 19
Kudos: 50





	Chocolate Cereal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shipsthatcouldshowyouthestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipsthatcouldshowyouthestars/gifts).



> kat requested a paulkins parent au and now they have a child!

Paul and Emma are great parents. Wonderful, even. And sure, maybe it’s because they measure themselves against their own parents, but isn’t that what every new parent does? According to Bill, no. It’s not.

They respectfully decide not to listen to Bill.

Emma’s parents had a bad case of favoritism towards Jane and even though she’s dead, it still sometimes feels like she’s their favorite child. Emma’s sick of it. She refuses to pick a favorite (not that there’s two kids to choose between at this point in their lives but still!) and she swears to herself that if her and Paul do end up getting a second kid and one of them turns out to be their favorite, she’s going to show the other one at least as much love and support because seriously. Fuck favoritism.

Paul, on the other hand, is an only child. His parents never had a favorite and that was because they didn’t have to. They loved Paul, sure, but they expected too much of him. Their plan was for him to be a straight A student and go to medical school. And for a while, Paul did want that. At least he thought so; so he pushed himself until his breaking point and found out that wasn’t what he wanted. In fact, he didn’t know what he wanted. He became one of those gifted kids who suddenly ran into a wall and his parents’ constant pushing didn’t help, so he promised himself he’d always be there to support his kid’s dream, no matter how big, no matter how small. He’d sure as hell not push anything onto them.

Paul and Emma are great parents. Wonderful, even. Because they measure themselves against their own parents and they don’t have a favorite and they don’t push Ellen to do anything she doesn’t want to. They love her. They support her. They’re the best parents and everything is going flawlessly.

There’s just one issue; one tiny flaw in their otherwise perfect parenting plan. And it’s a flaw their daughter very quickly figures out how to exploit.

Emma’s getting ready for work. It’s a Saturday and it’s not even six yet, so Paul’s not up yet. Ellen  _ shouldn’t  _ be up yet, but she tends to get woken up by just the tiniest amount of noise so she is.

But it’s fine. She’s just sitting by the kitchen table and doodling on a piece of paper while Emma makes herself breakfast and occasionally leaves to check she hasn’t forgotten anything in the bathroom.

Right when it’s almost time to leave, but not exactly time to leave just quite yet, Ellen pokes her head up. “Hey mom?”

“Mmhm?”

“Can I have chocolate cereal for breakfast? Please?” She looks up at Emma with the most adorable puppy dog eyes and while Emma knows they have a rule about no chocolate cereal except for on Fridays, she relents. “Alright, fine. Just don’t tell your dad.”

Ellen promises she won’t, so Emma pours her a bowl and kisses the top of her head before heading out.

Paul wakes up around ten. It’s a weekend, he’s allowed to sleep in. But he’s not allowed to stay in bed, because as soon as he starts making just the slightest bit of noise, Ellen makes her way into the bedroom and she smiles at him and tells him to come watch cartoons with her. And how can he say no to that?

The answer is, he can’t. So he goes to sit with her on the couch and pretends to watch cartoons, while he in reality sends Emma pictures of them and wishes her good luck with Zoey (because of course Zoey is working today as well).

Then lunch rolls around . Paul knows this because Ellen tugs his sleeve and whispers a question into his ear, as if it was the biggest secret in the universe, as if they weren’t completely alone in the apartment. “Dad, can I have chocolate cereal for lunch?”

“Isn’t cereal a breakfast?”

“Please?”

“Aren’t you supposed to only have it on Fridays?”

“Pretty please?”

He considers saying no. He really does! “Only because you asked so nicely. But don’t tell your mother, okay?”

Okay. So maybe neither Emma nor Paul can explain why their storage of chocolate cereal empties so fast, but that’s alright. Paul assumes it’s just Emma eating them when she gets up early to go to work and Emma assumes it’s just Paul eating them when he’s up late stressing about work stuff.

None of them suspects Ellen, and both Emma and Paul refill the cabinet without saying a thing, because they love one another and would hate to see the chocolate cereal run out.


End file.
